Echo in the Dark
by Totally-Out-Of-It
Summary: When Hikaru Shindou met Sai, they called it 'possession.' Now with Sai gone, Hikaru is overtaken by a completely different ghost in a darker form of 'possession.' Will anyone notice? preslash AkiHika


**Echo in the Dark**

_When Hikaru Shindou met Sai, they called it 'possession.' Now with Sai gone, Hikaru is overtaken by a completely different ghost in a darker form of 'possession.' Will anyone notice? preslash AkiHika_

…

…

I started writing this fic ages ago (according to my computer it was about 2011), finished it, let it sit for awhile, had my beta edit it, then let it sit for a huge long while more. It sat on my computer gathering figurative dust. Well I was just going through all my fics looking for something to write (or read), found it again, and went 'what the hell, why not post it?'

So the style's slightly different than I use normally and I'm not 100% confident in posting it, but here it is because I hate having it just sit around in the metaphorical dark. I've read through it but I may have missed some typos or old grammatical errors. If you find anything too heinous let me know and I'll do my best to fix it.

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It happened while Hikaru was walking down the stairs of the Go Institute. A decorated wooden ball rolled from somewhere to the left and stopped three feet in view. Hikaru stopped walking and stared at the ball curiously. No one was coming to claim it. He took the last few steps and knelt down by the ball that was about as big as his fist before looking to the left. No one was there. Where had the ball come from?

"Odd," he murmured to himself, looking back down at the ball. It had a picture of old black trees and grass carefully and minutely carved into the wood circling all the way around the ball and..a name. Hikaru picked the ball up and turned it so he could see the whole name. "Kurosawa no…Hibiki?" he said aloud. "Maybe I can get it back to him?"

"_You read my name…,"_ an awed voice said.

Hikaru froze. That voice…in the back of his mind…in the part of his consciousness that had been silent so long. "Oh god, not again," he murmured.

"_I will have life again, and do as I swore to all those years ago!"_ the man's voice declared happily, almost insanely.

Hikaru shook his head. "No. You can't-," he tried, but it was no use. The world was already going black and he was pitching forward onto the sidewalk outside the Go Institute. "I can't do this again…!" he forced out before he fainted.

Waya and Isumi were just exiting the Institute themselves when Hikaru went down. They both gasped Hikaru's name and rushed over to him. Waya shook Hikaru's shoulder but got no response, so he easily rolled his friend over onto his back. His right hand, limp in Hikaru's unconscious state, could not hold onto the ball and it rolled out of his grip and gently hit Isumi's foot. The dark haired go pro spared it barely a glance but picked it up and pocketed it anyway, knowing it was probably Hikaru's.

"We've gotta call an ambulance!" Waya shouted suddenly, yanking his phone from his pocket and hitting the buttons with so much force Isumi was worried he'd break the phone altogether. While Waya talked to the man, or woman, on the other end of the line, Isumi looked back down at Hikaru.

He looked troubled; his eyebrows were knit together and his entire face just seemed tense and worried. A moment later, as Isumi watched, Hikaru's face suddenly relaxed and he started breathing evenly. It wasn't until then that Isumi realized Hikaru hadn't been breathing. What was wrong with him? He placed a cautious hand on Hikaru's chest, as if trying to give the younger male comfort, when really he was just reassuring himself that Hikaru's heart was still beating.

…

…

Hikaru groaned, opening his eyes. His head hurt like he'd been hit by a ton of bricks. When his eyes were open and had focused, Hikaru realized he was somehow already standing….and it looked like he was in a hospital. Reality slammed down on him abruptly and Hikaru groaned.

Not again. Last time he'd been admitted to the hospital, Sai had just taken up residence in his soul. He lifted his hand and ran it across his face and looked down at the ground. He jumped.

"_What?!"_ he exclaimed, his voice echoing a bit and not because it was loud in a tile room. He…he…he was…

"It actually worked," Hikaru heard his own voice say and he flipped to see his body lying in the hospital bed. The look on his face was something akin to insane joy, a look that fit the declaration he'd heard before he passed out. He watched as his body turned to look at his disembodied spirit now hovering about a foot off the hospital floor. "Have you been possessed before? I didn't think it would be this easy to get you out."

Hikaru freaked. _"N-no way!"_ he yelled. _"You're not supposed to….I'm not….How did this happen?!"_

'I'd say you're pretty in tune to the supernatural, kid,' a voice said in his head and Hikaru jumped. His body was smirking at him and even though the voice in his head was different from the one coming out of his body, he knew the speaker was the same. 'I've tried a dozen times to attach myself to a living person, but I've never had this much success. Thanks a lot.'

It was a cold thanks. The man that now had control of his body gave Hikaru a creeped out feeling. This man was _wrong_.

Suddenly, the door opened, ending their conversation. Hikaru's mother stepped in and froze when she saw Hikaru looking at her with the most mild confusion on his face. After a moment, she gasped and ran to him. "Oh, Hikaru!" she cried, wrapping her arms around him. "I was so worried when they told me you'd collapsed! I thought, 'Not again!' And then you weren't waking up and I just…"

"Mom," the not-Hikaru said gently, patting Hikaru's mother's head. "I'm fine, really. Look. Do I look sick to you?" he asked, imitating Hikaru's mannerisms quite well when his mother had pulled back to look.

"_Stop it! Mom! Mom, that's not me_!" Hikaru yelled, but his mother just smiled at the thing in his body.

"I suppose….Are you hungry? You've been unconscious for a full day," she murmured worriedly.

Hikaru's body grinned widely. "I could eat a horse," he laughed.

Hikaru's mother smiled and stepped back from the hospital bed. "I'll just go see what I can do about that then. I'll be right back," she said, like she was warning him not to pass out again.

Once she was out of the room, Hikaru flipped to glare at his body, and it was staring evenly back. _"Stop it! Gimme back my body!"_

"Now now, Hikaru Shindou," the not-him said, putting his arms behind his head and leaning back against the headboard. "I haven't been in a physical body for more than half a second for…one hundred and forty years now," it mused aloud. "Let me have some time to enjoy it."

"_En…ENJOY IT?!"_ Hikaru bellowed, and the thing in his body held his stomach suddenly. _"You've taken over my body, you ass! You didn't even ask!"_

'I didn't think I would have to,' the man's voice said in his head, his face a mix between sick and pissed off. 'I'm not the sort of person who asks permission. I take what I want and do what I want and everyone else can die if they get in my way.'

Hikaru paled and the sick look left his body's face. _"Die? Have you….Who are you?"_

'You know my name, brat. You read it yourself, didn't you?' the man snapped, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

Hikaru remembered the ball he'd picked up. _"Kurosawa no Hibiki. Echo of the…black swamp_," he murmured. He glared and made fists at his sides. _"What do you want from me?"_

Hibiki glanced over at him and gave a wicked smile. "Simple. I want your body so I can finish what I started."

A shiver went down Hikaru's spine. Sai had wanted to do something too. He had wanted to play Go. This spirit was different. Something was…This man wanted to do something terrible with his body! This man was evil! A fear had seated itself in Hikaru's heart and he couldn't even open his mouth to speak, even long after Hibiki had looked away.

…

…

It was the next day and Hibiki stood outside the Go Institute with an air of annoyance. "Why the hell do I have to-"

"_Hey! You're in _my _body, so you have to follow _my _schedule!" _Hikaru yelled suddenly, floating over to stand next to his body. _"I have a teaching game to play here today, so you'd best know how to play Go! Or at least how to follow my instructions on how to play!"_

Hibiki shut his eyes and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "God. You're so annoying," he grumbled. "I can't wait until I can get what I came for. Then I can get out of here and be rid of you."

Hikaru stuck his tongue out. If having a busy schedule this week meant that this ghost couldn't use his body for whatever it planned to do for another week, then Hikaru was more than happy he'd scheduled everything at once. He had to figure out how to get this freak out of his body before it was too late, and the more time he had, the better!

He was also hoping that Hibiki didn't know how to play Go. He was hoping that Hibiki would make a mistake, do something Hikaru would never do. He was hoping that someone would notice that something was wrong, would figure out this wasn't Hikaru and stop him.

"_Hurry up! You'll be late!" _he shouted.

Hibiki shot him a vengeful glare and then walked up the stairs the way Hikaru would, his face clearing and a bright smile over taking his face, like he was relieved to be at the Institute. Hikaru's face fell and he hurried to catch up.

…

…

Hikaru stared dumbly at the go board in front of Hibiki. This…this stupid….this horrid…. _"How do you know Go?" _he breathed out.

The ghost in his body had managed to play a teaching game perfectly fine with the beginner he'd scheduled in. He held the stones like a pro and placed them with confidence. The opponent was gone now, and the board was cleaned, but Hikaru could still remember the distinct shapes played out on the board. Hibiki smirked.

'You know Go, thus I know Go.' He tapped his head. 'Everything you know is up here in my head, just as you have it in your own. When you saw the game just now, you couldn't help but think about where you would place the stones if it were you. I saw it too, and I knew how to play.'

Hikaru was shaking. Ok, so it wasn't like he had been cheering for Hibiki to lose the match: that would've been too embarrassing to imagine. But he had hoped that maybe…maybe someone would notice something was wrong if Hibiki couldn't play!

"_I hate you,"_ he breathed out. Hibiki raised an eyebrow but did nothing else, still sitting at the Go board. Hikaru hid his face with his bangs so Hibiki wouldn't see the frustrated tears threatening to overcome the young pro.

Sadly, it seemed Hibiki knew that too. "Come _on_," he whined aloud. 'Get over yourself, kid.' He stood and began walking away, his hands in his pockets. 'I've got you memorized. I'm everything you were and are. No one will notice a thing! When I'm done, I'll leave this body and you can have it back, easy as that. In fact, I should be the one who's angry.'

"_What?"_ Hikaru let out, following after his body. He didn't want to test what would happen if he got too far away from himself.

'Look at me,' Hibiki said, again sounding like he was almost whining. 'I'm stuck in this pitiful child's body!'

Hikaru stood in front of Hibiki and glared. _"I'm _sorry_ I'm not old enough for you! You got a problem with my age, find somebody else to possess!"_ Part of him actually hoped Hibiki would take his advice. Part of him knew it wouldn't help. Hibiki was still planning on doing something terrible and Hikaru would stop him no matter whose body he was in.

Hibiki stared at Hikaru for a moment and then grinned, walking straight through Hikaru and beyond. "Waya!" he called cheerfully. "I didn't know you were going to be here today!"

Waya Yoshitaka. Hikaru flipped around and saw Waya and Isumi coming off the elevator. His heart jumped in his throat. They had been the ones who found him after he collapsed! Waya shrugged with a small grin.

"Yeah, I'm not scheduled for anything, true. But, when a friend falls unconscious and doesn't wake up for a full twenty-four hours, you feel it's only right to see if they're still alive and functioning," Waya said like a tease. "But seriously," he said with a straight face. "You feeling alright?"

Hibiki laughed. "Yeah, I feel great. Better than I have in awhile actually. You don't have to worry about me!"

Hikaru stalked over to the group of three and waved his hands around in Waya and Isumi's faces. Nothing. He even walked right through them, but all that did was make Isumi pull his jacket a tiny bit tighter around himself. "Oh!" the dark haired pro let out, catching Waya and Hibiki's attention. "Shindou, I forgot to give this to your mom." He pulled a small wooden ball from his pocket. Hikaru felt a smile growing on his face the same moment that Hibiki started to look frightened. "You had it with you the day you collapsed. I figured you might want it back," Isumi explained.

"No!"

Hikaru, Waya, and Isumi all stared at Hibiki in shock. Waya narrowed his eyes. "You okay there?"

Hibiki was visibly pulling himself together on the spot. "Yes, I'm fine. It's…," he glanced warily at the ball. "It's not mine. Just throw it out or something. It's nothing," he said swiftly, trying to convince Isumi to get rid of it.

Hikaru grinned. _"You're afraid of the ball! That's it, isn't it!? I can get you out of my body by having you touch that ball!"_

Hibiki shot him an almost acidic look that Waya and Isumi caught. They glanced at each other and Isumi shrugged, so Waya tried to drop it. "Aaaanyway, Shindou," Waya began, turning to face Hibiki again, who looked at Waya with a smile. "Just wanted to make sure you were okay. You got anything else planned today?"

"Yeah," Hibiki said, nodding his head. "I'm playing Touya this afternoon at the Go salon."

"Really?" Isumi said, tucking the ball back in his jacket pocket. Hibiki glanced at the pocket first before answering.

"Yes. Why?"

Isumi shrugged again, noncommittally. Waya shook his head. "Nothing. Morishita-sensei's daughter is taking me out to buy her some probably expensive food again. I swear she's trying to bankrupt me, the little extortionist."

Hibiki and Isumi laughed at his expense for a bit, which made Waya go red in the face, and then Hibiki waved. "I gotta go, guys, or else Touya'll have my head for being late again." He hurried passed them to the elevator. "Ja!"

Once the elevator doors had shut, Isumi pulled the ball back out of his pocket. "What do you suppose made him freak out so bad? It's just a wooden ball…right?"

Waya shrugged. "I don't know, Isumi. He's always been a weird guy."

Isumi stared intently at the ball in the palm of his right hand even as Waya started whistling and walking back to press a button on the elevator to go down.

…

…

The moment Hikaru entered the Go salon behind Hibiki, his breath caught in his throat. Akira was playing a teaching game with one of the regulars and he looked so carefree, a totally different Akira than Hikaru was used to seeing. He supposed it was because Akira always looked so fierce when they were seated across the goban from one another, and they never hung out anywhere else. This Akira was something he never got to see.

Hibiki snickered and Hikaru ripped his gaze from Akira to Hibiki's face. 'You,' Hibiki started, 'You're in love with him, aren't you?'

"_What?!"_ Hikaru yelped. _"No!"_ His face was turning four shades of red and it was amazing he could blush at all seeing as he had no blood as a ghost.

Hibiki snorted again. '_Please_, don't even deny it. You're heart rate sped up like crazy the minute you saw him. Admit it. You want to fu-'

"Shindou!" Ichikawa greeted at just that moment. Hikaru put a hand to his chest and took deep breaths, trying to calm down while Hibiki gave a huge grin.

"Afternoon!" he greeted in return.

Ichikawa winked at him. "You're on time today! That's great!" Hibiki giggled and scratched his head, adding the perfect little blush to his face at the compliment she'd given. Hikaru hated him more by the minute. "You can go over, you know. He'll be done soon," Ichikawa assured him, pointing to Akira.

"Thanks." Hibiki waved to her before hurrying over to the table where the goban he would play against Akira on sat. He threw his bag next to the chair and sat down, staring at the board. 'I don't understand how you can think this game is fun. It is so boring!'

"_Hey!"_ Hikaru cried indignantly. "_It is not boring! It's a game of strategy and intelligence!"_

'Both of which you do not have, so you contradict yourself.' Hibiki put his elbows on the table and set his head in the palms of his hands. 'The minute this game is over, I'm doing research to find my targets. I am so through with this new age, and with you.'

Hikaru stared at his body, looking bored by a goban, in panicked shock. Targets? Targets!? _"Oh my god…,"_ he breathed out_. 'He's gonna kill someone!' _he shouted in his mind._ 'I gotta let someone know! I have to stop him! Oh, but Isumi has the ball and I can't touch anything in this state! WhatdoIdo?'_

He looked around, panic shown clearly on his face. He had to do something….He had to find someone who would- Hikaru stopped. Touya.

'_Touya saw Sai in my Go. Touya notices things other people over look all the time! If I can just make Touya see that this person in front of the goban isn't me….,'_ he thought determinedly.

Before he could come up with a good plan, however, Akira was already sitting down in the opposite seat. "You're on time," he noted.

Hibiki frowned. "Oh _come on_, Touya, it's not like I'm _always_ late!" he complained, almost at a soft level but not quite.

Akira nodded. "But it is a habit of yours."

Hikaru covered his ears. He didn't want to hear Hibiki act out the perfect Hikaru! He didn't want to hear the lies! He had to make Akira notice this wasn't him but how could he when Hibiki knew everything about him?!

Wait. Hibiki had said….

'You know Go, thus I know Go. Everything you know is up here in my head, just as you have it in your own. When you saw the game just now, you couldn't help but think about where you would place the stones if it were you. I saw it too, and I knew how to play.'

Did that mean…if Hikaru looked at the board and thought about playing a wrong move….would Hibiki see that in his head and place the wrong stone? Or would he play properly because Hikaru's immediate thoughts didn't matter that much? Either way, it was worth a try! And it was the only thing that might work.

A clatter broke Hikaru from his thoughts and he came back to reality in time to see Hibiki bending over to pick up the lid to his goke off the ground, where he'd dropped it. Akira looked upset at 'Hikaru's' clumsiness.

Hikaru glared. _"Be more careful! Touya already thinks I'm an idiot, I don't need you proving it to him when it isn't true!"_

Hibiki stared intently at the wooden lid as he placed it on the table. 'Shut up. You _are_ an idiot. I don't need _you_ telling me what to do and what not to do.'

Hikaru clenched his fists and silently seethed. Instead of retorting, he looked at the board and waited for the right moment to screw up the game. It took several minutes, and half a dozen turns, but Hikaru finally saw his mark. He stared at the point on the board and thought only of that point and nothing else. _'4-5. 4-5. 4-5. 4-5. 4-5.'_ It felt like the whole world was pushing in on him, but he kept thinking it, and then there was a soft 'pa-chi' and everything seemed to still. Hibiki had played the 4-5 point. Hikaru felt almost faint in relief but tried to hold it in. Hibiki might realize what had just happened if he didn't.

Akira, for what it's worth, paused and seemed to reread the whole board probably six times, trying to figure out why Hikaru had played that point. He narrowed his eyes and played his next stone as if Hikaru hadn't just done something apparently stupid. Hikaru stared at the board and thought about Akira's hair and how stupid the style was and how his eyes glittered when he was excited and flashed when he was angry and how good he looked in Hikaru-type clothes and how he got excited every time Akira wore clothes like that because it was once in a blue moon that it ever happened and didn't that new video game come out last week and the last time he'd seriously played a video game was probably a year ago and his mom needed to buy a new tv for the living room and the weather man had said it was supposed to rain sometime this week but he couldn't remember when and-

Akira looked up at Hibiki when he didn't play the next stone. Hibiki had his eyes closed and an intense frown on his face. Akira's eyebrow came together in confusion.

-maybe he should go to that park him and Sai visited again and hey, why not go to Innoshima next week because it was really nice there and should he be cremated when he died or simply buried and would Touya miss him if he died? But he shouldn't be thinking about death. He should be thinking about life. The birds were chirping and the dogs were barking and the cats were meowing and the guy's name was Kurosawa no Hibiki. Kurosawa no Hibiki. Kurosawa no Hibiki. _Kurosawa no Hibiki!_

"K-kurosawa no Hibiki."

Hikaru immediately stopped his thought process, his breathing coming out harshly in his metaphysical form and Hibiki's eyes snapped open, shock written all across his face. He looked up at Akira, who looked more lost than Hikaru had probably ever seen him.

"Excuse me?" Akira asked softly. "Are you feeling alright?"

Hibiki seemed to be having a bit of the same breathing problem Hikaru was and took a moment to answer. "A-actually….I'm leaving," he ended abruptly without fully answering, grabbing Hikaru's bag and standing up so forcefully he knocked some of the stones from the goban before practically running out of the salon.

Hikaru had just enough time to look back at Akira, who was staring in confusion at the door and then down at the goban and to say, _"Touya, I'm right here…!"_ before he felt himself kind of…fizzle…and then he was standing by his body around the corner from the Go salon where Hibiki had stopped running. _"You ran out of there pretty fast,"_ Hikaru mused smugly.

Hibiki shot him a glare so full of hate Hikaru was amazed he didn't cease to exist right then. "God damn you to hell," he hissed out. Hikaru never wanted to see this expression on his own face ever again. "How the hell did you do that? Huh?!"

Some people turned to stare at him at his outburst and Hibiki wasn't stupid enough to keep yelling aloud. 'How did you do it?!'

Hikaru gave an innocent expression. _"Do what?"_ he asked.

Hibiki, if possible, glared harder. 'Don't give me that crap! You know what you did! What I want to know is how!'

Hikaru gave up on being innocent and gave a smug smirk. _"Wouldn't you like to know?"_ he teased cruelly. _"I bet it just burns you up inside, knowing I can do that to you. It does, doesn't it?"_

Hibiki glared at him for a long time, and Hikaru watched him begin to shake in anger, and then all at once he turned away from Hikaru and crossed his arms, putting on the air of someone without a care in the world. 'Whatever. This just gives me more time to research my targets. Thanks a lot, kid,' Hibiki thanked, winking at Hikaru in much the same way Ichikawa had winked at him, before beginning to walk down the street.

Hikaru lost all smugness in an instant and ran after his own body. Outside the internet café he always went to, Hikaru paused before following Hibiki inside and looked at the sky. _"I hope you got the message, Touya. I don't think we have much time."_

…

…

Touya sat at a table in the Go Institute café for almost a half an hour before his guest showed up. Isumi scanned the room and walked over calmly when he saw Akira sitting there in the corner. He sat down in the chair across the table and folded his hands on top of the table contemplatively.

"This is quite the odd circumstance," Isumi mused gently. "I never expected to get a call from _you_, Touya."

"Yes, well," Akira admitted. "I know that your other friend, the spikey haired one, doesn't like me much and I needed to have a proper conversation so…I asked the Institute for your number."

Isumi let out a noise deep in his throat. "So, what did you want to talk about?" Akira opened his mouth to answer but shut it right after. "It's about Hikaru Shindou, hm?"

Akira looked shocked that Isumi had guessed it, but then he lowered his eyes to the table. "Hmm." He pursed his lips. "Shindou met me for a game today," he began. "But his game was…odd. And then he started acting weird."

"Aa," Isumi agreed. "Ever since he collapsed the other day-"

"Shindou collapsed?" Touya interrupted.

Isumi raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. On Thursday. Waya and I were walking out after our games and we saw him just…fall. He woke up yesterday." He entwined his fingers and stared at them. "When we saw him this morning, he seemed fine but…he got strange when he saw this-"

Isumi pulled the little wooden ball from his jacket pocket and set it on the table. It rolled a bit and stopped when it hit Akira's fingers on the table. Akira picked it up and turned it as he examined the pictures carved into the sides. "A ball?"

"_K-kurosawa no Hibiki"_

"Black swamp…," Akira breathed out. "Isumi-san, does this look like a picture of a swamp to you?"

Isumi took the ball back from Akira and traced the markings. "I guess. Sure. Why?"

"Shindou, before he left the salon, he said 'Kurosawa no Hibiki.'"

Isumi looked at the ball again. "Kurosawa. Sounds like a name."

"Yes," Akira agreed. "Yes it does." He stood up from the table. "Thank you for your time."

Akira turned to walk away but Isumi's voice called him back. "Hey." Akira turned around just in time to catch the little wooden ball. "Take that with you. It might help." Akira nodded his thanks and then kept walking. "I get the feeling…Touya will be the one to help him this time," Isumi murmured.

…

…

Hikaru's eyes were wide as Hibiki hit the print button. He heard the printer start shooting out pages, but he couldn't tear his eyes from the screen even as Hibiki stood to collect his spoils.

"_Oh my go…..ninety-seven people?"_ he gasped out.

'Of course. Of my original intended targets, three survived. Their grandchildren, a grand total of nine people, had a lot of descendents. I need to finish what I started all those years ago,' Hibiki said almost smugly as he tapped the wad of papers together and then folded them up before sticking them in Hikaru's back pack.

"_But-! A lot of those people are really old! And some are little kids! Why would you want to kill them?!"_ Hikaru shouted suddenly.

Hibiki gave Hikaru a blank look. 'When I was alive, everyone I knew hated me. They despised me and I suffered every _moment_ of every _day_ for simply existing. You have _no idea_ the torture I endured. So I decided to get my revenge by killing every single one of them. Sadly, the priest in charge of the local temple caught me and sealed my soul away so that I would never be able to hurt people again. Stupid old man. I'll show him and everyone who hurt me just what I'm capable of,' he finished angrily.

"_But these people have nothing to do with that! They probably don't even know it happened! You don't have to kill them!"_ Hikaru continued shouting.

"Shut up!" Hibiki demanded loudly, but they had left the internet café, so no one was really around to notice he was yelling at the air. 'They will pay for the crimes of their ancestors! Blood to blood! They're all the same!'

Hikaru shook but said nothing. This man was crazy and wouldn't listen to reason. When Hibiki started walking away, Hikaru stayed behind. Hibiki would start his killing spree as soon as Hikaru's games were over tomorrow. He had printed out the address of every single one of them and had made a map marking each one. Some of them lived farther away than Innoshima, but some of them lived closer to Hikaru than the Go Institute…and that's what worried Hikaru the most. If Hibiki happened to see one of them while they were walking down the street…what would he do? His hatred seemed to know no bounds!

It was dark by the time they got back to Hikaru's house, and his mother fretted over Hibiki the minute he was through the door. "I'm _fine_, mom," Hibiki insisted, trying to get past her to the stairs. "Look, I'm tired, alright? Can I just go upstairs and get some rest?" With that he pretty much shoved passed her and hurried up the stairs. He couldn't wait for tomorrow to come.

…

…

Akira sighed, leaning back in his computer chair and looking at the ceiling. The webpage open on his browser was a search engine. There were links to pages about anime characters and T.V. drama characters named Hibiki. There were links to pages about the use of Kurosawa in film and movies. There were pages for pop idols and music scores. None of them included all the words 'Kurosawa no Hibiki' however. It was 'hibiki', 'kurosawa', and every once in awhile 'no'.

He'd tried everything he could think of to find a person named Kurosawa no Hibiki, but he didn't know where else to look. He'd found family lines with the last name Kurosawa. He'd even found a Hibiki from over a hundred years ago. But there was nothing on the guy. The page had simply listed his name and that he'd died at the age of twenty-seven from an unlisted cause. The guy wasn't important at all, so it couldn't be him that Hikaru had meant. Except that there was no other Kurosawa no Hibiki that Akira could find at all!

"Shindou Hikaru," he murmured, shutting his eyes. "I do not understand at all."

…

…

It was probably around midnight and Hikaru was sitting in front of the goban in the middle of his room with his eyes shut. He was trying to figure out how to warn someone, Touya, that Hibiki was about to make his move. But….he wasn't sure he could leave his own body. Earlier, at the Go Salon, he'd faded over to where Hibiki was after he got a certain distance away. Sai had never left his side the whole time they were together in one mind. Could he….could he force himself away from his own body? How would that affect him?

'_Sai…I don't know what to do…If only you were still here,'_ he thought sadly, a few tears slipping down his cheeks. He hurriedly wiped them away and clenched his fists. _'I don't have time to be crying. I need to find a way to tell Touya I'm possessed so he can fix it. I know he'll believe me if I can just tell him the truth!'_ He put his right index finger to his right temple and thought for a moment, then gasped quietly. _'I remember on that one show I watched that they said people are more in tune to the spirit world when they're asleep. Well, Touya should be asleep by now, right? So he's more in tune to ghosts!'_ Hikaru glanced at Hibiki sleeping in his bed and then looked back at the go board. _'I can't leave my body, but maybe…maybe if I concentrate hard enough on Touya then I can send him a message. Just like I did this afternoon.'_

He stared intently at the goban for awhile, imagining a game that he and Touya had played once, and when he was almost certain Touya was actually placing stones on the board, he looked up and saw his rival sitting across from him in the dark room.

'_Touya,'_ he thought, staring deep into his rival's imaginary eyes. _'Touya, please tell me you hear me. I really _really_ need you right now.'_

A strange feeling overtook Hikaru, like he was being sucked through a hole that was slightly too small for him. Touya's image faded but did not disappear and Hikaru kept concentrating on his rival for all that he was worth. The strange feeling grew in intensity and Hikaru worried that he wouldn't be able to hold on to Akira's image long enough. Then, all at once, he felt normal again and found himself standing in a completely dark place.

"Hikaru?"

Hikaru flipped around and found himself face to face with Akira Touya. Akira was wearing clothes similar to something Hikaru would wear on a normal day and looked only mildly shocked to see him. "_Touya_!" Hikaru cried in joy, lunging forward and wrapping his arms around Akira's shoulders.

It only worked for a moment, and then Hikaru phased through and ended up on the other side of Akira. Akira turned around in shock, staring at Hikaru like he'd grown two heads. "Hikaru, _what_ are you doing?"

Hikaru was shaking slightly. As a ghost, he couldn't even touch people in _dreams_?! He shook his head forcefully and turned to face Akira. "Touya…I need you to listen to me. I don't think I have much time."

"What are you talking about, Hikaru?" Akira asked, clearly confused.

Hikaru shook his head a bit again, gentler this time. "Listen. I'm not me right now. I'm being possessed by a ghost named Kurosawa no Hibiki. He's planning on using my body to get revenge on the descendents of the people who hurt him when he was still alive. The list includes ninety-seven people, Touya. You've got to find a way to stop him!"

Akira stared at him like he had four heads this time. "…I don't understand. How did you get possessed by a vengeful spirit?"

"He said I was more in touch with the supernatural than the last dozen people he'd tried to possess. I think it's because Sai-" Hikaru's breath caught in his throat and he stopped.

Akira's eyes were wide. "Sai?"

Hikaru shook his head. "Not now. I'll tell you soon, k? I promise. If we manage to stop Hibiki from using me to kill a hundred people….then I'll tell you everything. I swear."

Akira seemed to consider this for a few moments. "So…today…at the Go salon…"

Hikaru nodded. "He can't play Go by himself, he needs my input. I purposefully thought of bad moves so he would play wrong so I could get your attention. I knew that, out of anyone, _you_ would notice Touya."

Akira stared at him for a full five seconds before murmuring, "This really is you, isn't it?"

Hikaru blinked. "What? Of course it's me! Who else would I…well, besides a vengeful spirit, but in a dream, who else would I be?"

There was a lot of silence, and then Akira's eyes took on a determined gleam that Hikaru only ever saw across the goban during a particularly intense game. "Alright, Shindou. I'll try to believe you. But even if I do, I don't know how to kill ghosts."

Hikaru shook his head. "You don't need to, Touya. You just need to-" His vision swam and he saw the bedroom for a moment before he was back with Touya in the dream. "Oh…," he let out, suddenly feeling very ill.

"Shindou?"

Hikaru put a hand on his head, trying to clear the sudden nausea that overcame him. "I don't feel too great….Touya!" he gasped, remembering what he'd been saying. "The ball! Isumi has a wooden ball! Hibiki's spirit was attached to it before I picked it up. He just needs to t-" Touya vanished and Hikaru was back in front of the goban in his bedroom. _"-touch it,"_ he finished softly in a defeated tone.

Light was beginning to stream in through the windows and Hikaru blinked at it. Dawn? Already? He heard movement from his bed and turned to watch as Hibiki sat up and stretched.

"Ah!" he let out. "To actually sleep a normal sleep is a wonderful thing. You never really appreciate sleep until you've gone a century without it. It's beautiful," he commented off-handedly, almost like he wasn't talking to Hikaru at all. "How did you do last night?" he asked conversationally, pushing himself out of the bed and over to the dresser.

Hikaru glared at him. _"Fine,"_ he ground out. How did he _sleep_? Ghosts don't sleep. Hibiki was being an ass on purpose_. "Have nice dreams?"_ he asked sarcastically.

Hibiki nodded. "Quite nice, actually. I dreamt I successfully killed every one of those bastards I looked up yesterday and my spirit moved on to a better place."

"_Better!?"_ Hikaru shouted. _"You'll have murdered a hundred people! The only place you'll go is hell!"_

"Calm down, little boy," Hibiki said calmly. "It's too early for raised emotions like that. You'll make yourself sick."

Hikaru clenched his fists and seethed silently, not moving even when Hibiki left the room and headed downstairs. Dear God, Hikaru hoped Touya had gotten the message and was moving to fix everything! After Hikaru's game today, Hibiki would move on to his list of victims and there would be nothing they could do!

…

…

Akira pulled on his shirt and buttoned it up like he did every morning. He combed his hair and brushed his teeth and washed his face and did everything he normally did, except that this morning he paused before leaving the room and stared at the wooden ball laying on his bedside table.

Last night in his dreams, Shindou had come to him and told him that a ghost had taken over Shindou's body. He'd said the ghost's name was Kurosawa no Hibiki and that the wooden ball Isumi had given to Touya was the key to stopping the ghost from using Hikaru's body to kill over a hundred people. It was impossible. It couldn't be true. But…Shindou had consistently called him 'Touya' in the dream, and he'd been rushing and desperate and he'd said that Isumi had the ball still, even though Akira had it now.

Could it really have been Shindou's spirit communicating with him last night? Was he really possessed? Were ninety-seven people really in danger? How was Sai connected to all of this?

Those were Akira's thoughts as he walked through the Go Institute that day, and all through his game that day. He was about to get in the elevator to leave the building when Hikaru Shindou walked up and stood next to him. And that's when it hit him. He knew how to check if this was Shindou or not!

Hikaru gasped when he saw Akira. The elevator doors opened and they both got in in silence. Hikaru's heartbeat sped up and he prayed that Akira had gotten his message last night. But wait…if Akira told Hibiki about the dream last night…what would Hibiki do then?!

"Sai."

"Hm?" Hibiki let out, turning to look at Akira with confusion. "Who?"

Akira smirked before he could stop himself, but immediately forced his face to look calm again. "Don't tell me you missed it, Shindou," he nearly sneered and Hikaru blinked stupidly at him. What was Akira… "But I guess you don't really use the computer often, do you? Sai was a player online who just randomly appeared a little while ago. He took the internet by storm and defeated many people. He even beat my father," Akira informed him.

Hibiki nodded like he was really interested and Hikaru focused on the floor tiles to keep from getting too giddy. Touya knew! Akira knew! And Hibiki was walking right into it! The prick hadn't even responded when Akira mentioned his father losing to Sai, and Akira knew for a fact that Hikaru had been present for a lot of that!

"So….," Hibiki began. "What about him?"

Akira closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "He vanished. Sai's last game was against my father. After that, he disappeared from the internet and no one has heard of him since."

Hibiki nodded a bit and then shrugged. "So?"

"I once thought that _you_ were Sai," Akira admitted.

Hibiki laughed but inwardly he asked, 'Were you Sai, kid?'

Hikaru snorted. _"Heck no. Sai was much too powerful to be me. He was my teacher. No one knows that though, it was a secret between Sai and me."_

"Nah! I'm not Sai," Hibiki admitted with a grin. "But I'll tell you a secret," he nearly whispered, moving in closer to Akira and cupping his mouth near Akira's ear. "He was my teacher."

Both Hikaru and Akira's eyes widened. _"No!"_ Hikaru yelped. _"You weren't supposed to tell him that!"_

'Oh, really?' Hibiki asked in a falsely innocent voice. 'Oh well. It's your problem, not mine.'

The elevator doors opened on the first floor and Hibiki meandered easily out of the small area. Akira stepped out as well, but stopped walking soon after. He was staring at Hikaru in shock.

'Now off to complete my worldly business,' Hibiki said calmly, but with a hint of insane joy behind it.

Hikaru gulped and glanced back at Akira, who was just standing there and staring._ 'Come on, Touya…You've gotta stop him! He's going to kill people….right now! Touya!'_

Akira Touya knew now. If his lack of knowledge on the Sai incident didn't prove it, that just did. Shindou would never tell him something like that so easily. It was true. It was all true! Hikaru had been possessed by a vengeful spirit! Almost a hundred people were in danger….Akira touched the wooden ball in his pocket and then gripped it tightly.

"Shindou," he called out, walking forward briskly. Hibiki stopped and turned to face Akira with a curious expression on his face, perfectly hiding how upset he was that he was being stalled in his plans for vengeance. Hikaru gave Akira a hopeful look that neither he nor Hibiki saw.

"Yeah, Touya?" Hikaru asked in a nonchalant drawl.

Akira stopped right next to him. "I…actually, I have something for you."

Hibiki let his eyes widen comically. 'Heh, look, brat, you're crush has a gift for you. Maybe you have a chance with him after all,' he teased cruelly. Hikaru glared at him shortly but quickly returned his gaze to Akira instead. "Really? What?" Hibiki asked innocently.

Reaching into his pocket, Akira took Hikaru's hand with his own left hand and then fluidly pulled what was in his pocket out and into Hikaru's hand before Hibiki or Hikaru could see what it was. "Hopefully, your freedom."

"Hm?" Hibiki let out. A pain bit him in the hand and his eyebrows came together. "What…." He turned his hand over and saw the wooden ball there and his eyes widened in fear. "No…! Ah-" Pain shot up his arm and then throughout his body and Hibiki fell to the ground. He tried to drop the ball but Hikaru wrapped his hands around both his own body's hand and the ball and it, surprisingly, actually stopped Hibiki from being able to open his hand. "Let go of me you….augh!"

"Ahhh!" Hikaru cried out, feeling something akin to electricity shock through him, and then his world was going black. He forced himself to stay conscious.

Hibiki brought his free hand up, shakily, and tried to pry Hikaru's hands away from the ball, but Hikaru held steadfast. "You idiot….! I won't…let you….stop….guh," he forced out. His left hand fell away and Hikaru felt Hibiki's grip on the ball loosening.

"Please….," Hikaru begged as his own eyes began to fall shut, and then both his spirit and his body hit the floor at the same time.

Akira stared in shock at the body before him until the wooden ball rolled out of Hikaru's limp right hand in hit him in the foot. He quickly picked it up and shoved it back in his pocket before kneeling down and placing his hand on Hikaru's shoulder. "Shindou?"

Akira thanked God that no one was in this particular area of the Institute, so no one was gathering around. No one would believe him if he told them what had happened….they would probably think he'd just attacked Hikaru somehow. Akira thanked God again when Hikaru's eyes fluttered open after only a few moments.

"Shindou," he breathed out, relieved.

Hikaru's eyes moved from staring blankly at the floor in front of him to looking up at Akira beside him and then they widened and he pushed himself up. He threw his right hand to his head to stop the world from spinning afterwards though. "Ugh…," he groaned. "Ah! Touya!" he gasped, focusing on Akira and putting both his hands on both of Akira's shoulders. "Where's the ball? Where's Hibiki?" he asked in a panic, looking around.

"Calm down, Shindou," Akira said, almost chastising. "It's in my pocket." He pulled it out again and showed it to Hikaru, who flinched away from it but scrutinized it from afar.

After a few moments, Hikaru sighed in blatant relief. "Good, his name's on it again…" When Isumi had showed it to him the other day, Hibiki's name hadn't been on the ball. "Touya," Hikaru breathed out quietly, looking up to lock eyes with Akira. "Thank you. For saving me and for….for believing me."

The elevator 'dinged' and Akira shoved the ball back in his pocket before pulling Hikaru to his feet. "Let's sit down over there," he motioned to some chairs out of the way, "before we attract any unwanted attention."

Hikaru nodded his assent and then Akira helped him make his way to the chairs. He felt a bit woozy, so Akira offering to be a crutch was greatly appreciated. Once they were seated and the people who'd been coming off the elevator were gone, Akira looked at Hikaru and sighed. He stared at the floor.

"I have to admit….believing that you weren't, well…you….it was hard to imagine. I almost didn't believe you, but then he didn't…," Akira shook his head. "He didn't even know who Sai was, at all." The Go-pro lifted his eyes to lock gazes with Hikaru like Hikaru had done to him only moments ago. "Was he telling the truth? Was Sai really….your teacher? The one who taught you to play?"

Hikaru's breath and heartbeat stuttered. He squeezed his hands together for support and took a deep breath. He'd promised to tell if they stopped Hibiki…and they had. With a sigh, Hikaru nodded. Akira's breath hitched this time. "Yeah…."

"Who was he?" Akira asked in a near whisper.

Hikaru stared sadly at the floor near his right sneaker. "He….he was the ghost of a Go player from the Heien era of Japan, the best there was at the time. But….in a game played for the Emperor, his rival player cheated and then, before Sai could call him on it, told the Emperor that Sai had been the one to cheat. He was stripped of his position and everything he had was taken from him, so….he drowned himself in the river. His soul became attached to a Go board, which was picked up by Torajiro Shusaaku. When Shusaaku died, Sai's soul returned to the Go board." Hikaru looked up at Akira then. "I don't know how, but the board ended up in my grandfather's attic, and when I touched it…Sai took up residence in my soul."

"You said Hibiki told you you were easier to possess because of Sai…because you'd been possessed before," Akira breathed out. His eyes were searching Hikaru for an answer and Hikaru's eyes widened.

"No," he said forcefully with a shake of his head. "No, Sai never possessed me like Hibiki did. He simply existed within me, beside me in everything I did. He never played my games for me after I decided to go pro. I played him every night and he taught me what he could about the game, but I was the one playing when it really mattered."

Akira's eyebrows came together and he stared at Hikaru so intensely that Hikaru felt Akira could see into his very soul. For several minutes, they just sat there, and then, "So when my father played against Sai before he retired…"

Hikaru let out an almost exasperated sigh. "Please, don't remind me of that," he whined. "I told him he could play Sai, but only if he would play him on the internet. Your father said he didn't want to play someone who was too cowardly to show his face but Sai so desperately wanted to play him…so I begged your father to overlook his suspicions of Sai and play him on the internet. The battle was so awesome and I got to see it from the best position ever, right in the middle of it!" He cheered quietly, looking excited. "Afterwards, I went to check on him, because he'd told me he would retire if he couldn't beat Sai. I thought he'd been joking, and I tried to talk him out of it…but then Ogata walked in and…well, everything just got so hectic. We'd planned on having another match between Sai and your dad but…," here Hikaru trailed off, his gaze moving to rest on the floor again and his expression turning sorrowful.

Akira watched him for a few moments, but then the suspense was killing him. "But?" he prodded gently.

Hikaru's frown grew deeper. "Then Sai…disappeared…"

Akira's eyes widened. "Disappeared?" he breathed out.

Hikaru nodded and shut his eyes. "I was tired that day, and Sai kept mentioning that he didn't have much time left, but I wouldn't listen. He kept begging to play, to get on a computer or find some random Go salon or…or something, but I didn't care. I thought he'd be there forever, until long after I'd died….He kept bugging me until I agreed to play him in my room, just the two of us…In the middle of the game he…he was just…gone…I looked all over for him…I even went to Innoshima, to see if he'd gone to visit Shusaku's grave but…but he wasn't there. He wasn't anywhere, and the Go board his soul had been attached to was empty. I…." Akira was shocked when he saw the tears dripping from Hikaru's cheeks onto the floor. "I lost him…I miss him, every day, all the time."

Akira hesitated a moment, and then placed his right hand on Hikaru's head and gently brushed his hair a bit before settling his hand on Hikaru's left shoulder. "Shindou…Hikaru," he corrected quietly. "I'm sorry."

Akira was having only a bit of trouble believing this. If it hadn't been for Kurosawa no Hibiki, then Akira would probably think Hikaru was lying to him, was telling a big joke or something. But now Akira knew that Hikaru had definitely been possessed by a spirit, and that ghosts did exist and that Hikaru was crying and they were real tears of true remorse and he couldn't see any way whatsoever to disprove what Hikaru was saying. He didn't want to. He wanted to believe him and it was ridiculously easy to do so.

"I'm so sorry."

That same afternoon, Hikaru and Akira went to a temple together and gave the wooden ball to a priest there who could put it somewhere where no one would ever find it. After that, Hikaru avoided Akira and Akira went back to his normal life. Well, normal enough.

...

...

Nowadays, Akira found himself randomly gazing off into the distance when no one was around and thinking about Sai. He wondered what it was like to have a ghost hundreds of years old that was so phenomenal at Go follow you around all the time. He tried to imagine Hikaru, with no interest at all in Go, being followed by a pestering ghost that never stopped talking about the game. It made him grin. He thought about how he would feel if he had someone who was with him through everything, every hardship, every success, who knew all there was to know about him, and how he would feel if he suddenly lost that person; a person closer to him than his parents or his teachers or his friends. He wasn't sure how Hikaru could stand it.

He suddenly remembered when Hikaru had stopped playing Go, shortly after his father retired. Maybe that was because Sai disappeared? He had wondered about Hikaru at that time. It had ended when Hikaru had rushed into the Institute and declared to Akira that he wasn't going to give up Go.

He found himself thinking about Hikaru a lot too, more than he usually did. Hikaru had shown a side of himself to Akira that no one else knew. He'd shown Akira the side of himself named Sai that had seemed to vanish so long ago. Besides that, when Hikaru was in trouble, he'd reached out to Akira. He had not gone to Waya or Isumi, but to Akira Touya. That thought, in and of itself, was enough to make Akira's heart flutter.

After two weeks, Akira wasn't sure he could last another day without seeing Hikaru again.

He didn't have a game that day, but he knew Hikaru did, so he went to the institute and simply sat, waiting, once the game was over. It took what felt like ages, but finally Hikaru was leaving with his many friends. Akira stood up and made his way over to them.

"Shindou," Akira began as a sort of greeting.

Hikaru stopped walking, so his friends did too. Everyone turned to face him with confusion on their faces except Hikaru. His face looked more contemplative and worried.

Akira took a deep, inconspicuous breath. "Let's play a game."

"What?" Waya gasped. "He just finished a game! You were there, watching it!"

Akira nodded. "I'm aware of that," he answered Waya, but kept his gaze on Hikaru alone. "I still want to play with Shindou."

Waya grumbled about stupid pros who thought they could do whatever they wanted under his breath, but Hikaru nodded. "Sure, Touya," he agreed. If anyone noticed he was being a bit more restrained than usual, they didn't mention it. Hikaru looked to his friends. "Go on without me guys, I'll call you later." He assured them with a big grin and Isumi nodded his assent.

"Come on, Waya," he prodded, gently taking a hold of his younger friend's shoulder and directing him toward the door. The rest of Hikaru's little group went with them, leaving only Hikaru and Akira left in the room.

Akira motioned with his head to a hallway. "Come, let's play," he offered.

Hikaru stood his ground. "Touya…," he began, softly. "Why do you want to play me?" He seemed baffled by the very idea.

Akira raised his right eyebrow. "What are you talking about? Why wouldn't I want to play you?"

"Well," Hikaru scuffed his toe. "You were so obsessed with the first few games I played against you, but those were back when I barely even knew what Go was….Those were games you played with Sai," and even saying the ghost's name seemed painful for Hikaru. "I thought now, since you knew, that you wouldn't want me as your rival anymore…because I'm not Sai and I can't play like him and all the mystery's gone out of it all."

He looked a bit like a lost child in that moment. Akira sighed gently and gave Hikaru an even stare. "Hikaru." Hikaru's eyes widened. "I was so blown away by the way you played the first time we met that I became obsessed with chasing you. I got so angry at myself for chasing you when you obviously weren't what I thought you were, that I forced myself to look only forward and to ignore you. Most of the time I couldn't manage it," he admitted with a tiny, rueful smile. "Since that time, you have grown into your Go and you have become my rival in every shape and form imaginable. You are my eternal rival, forever." He placed his right hand on Hikaru's left shoulder. "I don't think I could leave you alone if I wanted to."

"But…," Hikaru trailed off, searching Akira's face. A little smile was beginning on his lips. "Really?" Akira nodded resolutely and Hikaru's smile stretched across his face. "Then, then….Can we also be friends? I mean, if we're going to be playing Go with each other forever, I'd like to be friends with you so we can actually stand to be around each other that long," he joked.

Akira's face took on a strange expression that Hikaru couldn't quite place. After a brief moment, he let out a breathy laugh and smiled. "I don't understand you, Shindou."

Hikaru shook his head. "No! You can call me Hikaru, it's alright," he insisted. "And I'll call you A…akira," he practically forced out. That stopped his excitement and he put a finger to his right temple. "Wow, that's weirder than I thought…"

Akira's smile was gentle and happy. "You'll get used to it, Hikaru," he promised. Hikaru blinked at him for a moment and then smiled a wide toothy grin. "How about a game?" Akira suggested good-naturedly.

Hikaru nodded excitedly. "You bet! This time, I'll beat you so bad~!" He grabbed Akira by the hand and tugged him down the hallway to a room where they could play, the smile never leaving either of their faces.

Today was the start of something new, something different, something amazing. Neither of them could wait.

...

...

_fin_


End file.
